Hurricanes’ Joni Pitkanen Stretchered Off Ice After Crashing Into Boards

Joni Pitkanen suffered a season-ending ankle injury after crashing hard into the boards on an icing call. The Carolina Hurricanes defenseman was rushing to beat Troy Brouwer to the puck, but ended up going feet-first into the boards and severely injuring his ankle. He eventually had to be stretchered off the ice and TSN’s Darren Dreger has reported that he’s expected to be out for three months.

As the announcer said, this clip is yet another argument for hybrid icing. If adopted, the race on an icing call would be to the faceoff dots and not the puck, which would significantly minimize these kind of injuries.